Topic: Rivercrab 's blog Useful Note on Chinese Drinking Culture

Alcohol, misinterpreted signs, different sexual orientation, and culture gap is a recipe for disaster. I know 罚酒, but this does not excuse the gay from drinking YOUR drinks and being unfriendly about it. However, you were annoyed, not in danger, and it was a mistake to start getting physical. Fist fighting is a more extreme reaction in China than it is in the West. Regardless of who was initially at fault, the person who physically escalates the problem is seen as the sole perpetrator. Foreigners have been killed in fights arising from the kind of scenario you describe. In dodgier third or fourth-tier cities, your reaction might elicit a faster, more dangerous response from the locals. They usually won't confront you directly or evenly--when you think everything has died down, they'll be quietly on their phones mustering up reinforcements. Next thing, you're dealing with a flash mob, some carrying knives. Also, there's some hostility towards foreigners at the moment because of a few well-publicized incidents over the past few years. So, there's going to be a certain element who swell with patriotic pride at the chance to rid their bar, and by implication, their country, of the "foreign trash" (as one CCTV anchor put it). Get a grip on your own emotions in the bar and you'll avoid problems.